During their evidence on 3rd July, Ministers took the opportunity to identify where the Youth Select Committee could contribute to Government policy. In response to a question from the Chair about how its report might inform and influence Minister Alistair Burt MP, Minister for Community and Social Care, suggested “How we keep children and young people safe on the internet; ideas for future digital apps; and how we can improve children and young peoples participation in policy making and planning for implementation”. Sam Gymiah MP, Minister for Childcare and Education, said “What can we do on a big scale to get peer-to-peer support working as part of our response in dealing with young people’s mental health issues?”. Both Minsters were interested in what ‘good’ mental health services would look like from the perspective of young people and their parents.
Professor Peter Fonagy, Clinical Director for Mental Health at NHS England who gave evidence earlier in the day underlined the importance of improving this area of services. “Do not lose sight of the tremendous opportunity that improving the mental health of children and young people represents for all of us-not just those of us working in this field, but everyone around us, and not just now, but in the future. We have a lever to improve everyone’s wellbeing through improving young people’s wellbeing.”
Mental health was voted as the priority campaign of the UK Youth Parliament, following their Make Your Mark ballot (90,549 young people voted for it) and their annual House of Commons debate in November 2014. Shortly after the committee called on the public to submit evidence and received over a hundred responses.
The committee will now go on to write their report on mental health awareness, education and services which will be published later this year.
Alistair Burt MP, Minister for Community and Social Care, said: “Children and young people’s mental health is my personal priority. It was both an honour and pleasure to provide evidence at the Youth Select Committee earlier this month. I am looking forward to the forthcoming report and would like to continue to work with the members so we can ensure that their views are incorporated into our work.”
Sam Gyimah MP, Minister for Childcare and Education, with responsibility for young people’s mental health, said: “One of this Department’s priorities is to support schools and colleges in helping young people succeed through developing good character, resilience and mental health. It was both a challenge and a pleasure to give evidence to such a knowledgeable and engaged committee on this vital issue. As I said at the committee, it’s really important that we listen to young people at all stages when we develop policy as well as designing and delivering services. I look forward to their report, which I’m sure will provide a valuable perspective on how to meet the challenges we face.”
Rhys Hart, Chair of the Youth Select Committee said: “It was fantastic to hear the testimony of so many people stepping forward to talk about such an important issue for young people in the UK. I’d like to thank the schools, young people, healthcare professionals, politicians and more – who from every corner of the country – and gave us such valuable evidence for our inquiry.”
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Friday 26th June 2015
Friday 3rd July 2015
Young representatives from across the UK will be questioning two Government Ministers as part of their inquiry into mental health, focussing on awareness, education and the current services on offer for young people. Seeing is believing – the proceedings are broadcast live on BBC Democracy Live with the Ministers appearing on BBC Parliament from 4pm-5pm.
Alistair Burt MP, Minister of State for Community and Social Care and Sam Gyimah MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Childcare and Education will be giving evidence to the Youth Select Committee this Friday 3rd July 2015 in Parliament. The Youth Select Committee is a British Youth Council initiative, supported by the House of Commons. The eleven committee members are aged 13-18 and include two Members of the UK Youth Parliament (MYPs), two youth councillors, a Young Mayor, one elected representative from each of the devolved nations and three reserved seats.
James Cathcart, Chief Executive of the British Youth Council: “This youth-led enquiry by a cross section of representative young people enables and empowers the voice of youth to contribute to, and shape the policy agenda, it’s a new and credible way to engage young people in our democracy and deserves more recognition. The young people are well prepared, passionate but courteous in the questioning. Last week the House of Commons voted to permit the UK Youth Parliament to hold annual debates in the Chamber. This enquiry topic arose out of last year’s debate – and we call on MPs to debate the final report when its published in the autumn.”
Rhys Hart, Chair of the Youth Select Committee and Member of Youth Parliament for Shropshire said: “With mental health so high on the agenda for young people I’m extremely delighted that the Government will be responding to the calls of the Youth Select Committee. Our inquiry is set on finding some recommendations for improving awareness, education and the services on offer for young people and we’re extremely grateful to the practitioners, young people and charities that are prepared to stand before us to give evidence on such a hard hitting subject.”
Mental health was voted as the priority campaign of the UK Youth Parliament in their annual House of Commons debate in November 2014.This followed their Make Your Mark ballot when 876,000 young people voted and identified this it as a top five issue. The committee called on the public to submit evidence and received over a hundred responses.
Following last week’s oral evidence session with Royal College of Psychiatrists, Healthwatch, Television Presenter Anna Williamson and more the Youth Select Committee will be hosting its second oral evidence session with practitioners from the School and Public Health Nurses Association, young people from the NHS Youth Forumand charities from Ditch The Label, , before the Ministers in the afternoon. The Youth Select Committee mirrors the UK Parliament Select Committee structure and gives young people the opportunity to scrutinise and hold enquiries into topics of importance to them. The Youth Select Committee has received induction training and mentoring from Parliamentary Clerks and British Youth Council staff.
The session will be open to the public on a first come, first served basis. For meetings in Portcullis House, the entrance is located on Victoria Embankment. There is no system for the prior reservation of seats in Committee Rooms. It is advisable to allow about 30 minutes to pass through security checks. Committee rooms and the timing of meetings are subject to change.
Find out more about the committee members.
Find out more about our second oral evidence session
The Youth Select Committee is conducting an inquiry into mental health, focussing on awarness, education and the current services on offer for young people. The committee will be holding its first oral evidence session in the Thatcher Room in Portcullis House on Friday 26th June 2015.
The Youth Select Committee is a British Youth Council initiative, supported by the House of Commons. The eleven committee members are aged 13-18 and include two Members of the UK Youth Parliament (MYPs), two youth councillors, a Young Mayor, one elected representative from each of the devolved nations and three reserved seats.
Rhys Hart, Chair of the Youth Select Committee said: “With over 140 pieces of submitted evidence from young patients to paediatricians and politicians, we now have a real variety of detailed and valuable evidence, and we are extremely thankful to all those who submitted. Our first oral evidence on Friday 26th June will give us the opportunity to hear from a wide range of people from up and down the country. Mental health is a sensitive but significantly important issue to young people with over 90,500 voting for it in the ‘Make your Mark’ campaign last year. I am eager to begin the oral evidence stages and I’m looking forward to what the panellist have to say.”
Mental health was voted as the priority campaign of the UK Youth Parliament, following their Make Your Mark ballot (90,549 young people voted for it) and their annual House of Commons debate in November 2014. Shortly after the committee called on the public to submit evidence and recieved over a hundred responses.
During the Youth Select Committee’s oral evidence session they will hear from interested parties who submitted evidence including national bodies like the Royal College of Psychiatrists, schools and young people from various parts of the country. The Youth Select Committee mirrors the UK Parliament Select Committee structure and gives young people the opportunity to scrutinise and hold enquiries into topics of importance to them. The Youth Select Committee has received induction training and mentoring from Parliamentary Clerks and British Youth Council staff.
For the first time the committee are also asking members of the public to get in touch via social media and share their thoughts on questions such as:
- How can we to prevent stigma and discrimination towards young people with mental health issues?
- Do you feel informed about the mental health services available to you?
- Is education on mental health in schools sufficient? Should it be a compulsory part of the National Curriculum?
Anyone with ideas to share or questions they would like the committee to put to their witnesses is invited to share them on Twitter using #youthselect. Tweets will be included in the brief for the committee and may be included in the final report which will be presented to the government in autumn.
The session will be open to the public on a first come, first served basis. For meetings in Portcullis House, the entrance is located on Victoria Embankment. There is no system for the prior reservation of seats in Committee Rooms. It is advisable to allow about 30 minutes to pass through security checks. Committee rooms and the timing of meetings are subject to change.
Find out more about the committee members.
Find out more about our first oral evidence session
The Youth Select Committee today announces a new inquiry into mental health, to explore issues around awareness, education and services for young people (under 25) and is calling for evidence from a wide range of witnesses, including experts, parliamentarians and young campaigners. The Youth Select Committee (YSC) is a British Youth Council initiative, supported by the House of Commons. The eleven committee members are aged 13-18 and include two Members of the UK Youth Parliament (MYPs), two youth councillors, a Young Mayor, one elected representative from each of the devolved nations and three reserved seats.
Rhys Hart, Chair of the Youth Select Committee (18, MYP for Shropshire – pictured above), said:””Mental Health is a sensitive and important topic for young people, ranging from stress to suicide and school support to hospitalisation. To investigate this, the Youth Select Committee will need to demonstrate care and capability in its approach. I am absolutely positive that we will create an extensive and strong report fed by diverse pieces of evidence to be able to develop considered recommendations to the government”.
The Youth Select Committee will look at the three themes of awareness, education and services as part of its inquiry.
The Committee call for evidence closes at noon on 22nd May 2015 and the Youth Select Committee will hold oral evidence sessions in the House of Commons in June and July 2015.
Mental health was chosen as the subject for the inquiry by the British Youth Council following the UK Youth Parliament voting the topic as a priority campaign at its annual sitting in the House of Commons on November 2014, and BYC members voting on it to be an Election Campaign priority for the 2015-2020 Parliament. It was also a top five topic in the Make Your Mark youth referendum of 876,000 young people balloted across the UK.
The 2014 Youth Select Committee inquiry into “votes at 16” included written and oral evidence sessions and a final report with government response. Find out more about the 2014 enquiry here.
Call for evidence
Interested groups or individuals are encouraged to submit written evidence to the inquiry. Written evidence should be received by the Committee no later than 12 pm on 22 May2015. The questions which written evidence should address are available via this page.
Inquiry-related questions:
Please contact the inquiry team on bycyouthselect@parliament.uk
Media enquiries:
Members of the press with enquiries should Rhammel Afflick, Communications & Media Officer, British Youth Council, on 020 7250 8376 or Rhammel.Afflick@byc.org.uk
Just before Parliament was dissolved last week, the British Youth Council (BYC) received the formal response of the Government to its Youth Select Committee report – “Lowering the Voting Age to 16”. The full response was in a letter from Sam Gyimah MP, Minister for the Constitution.
The original youth-led enquiry took place last year and the report recommended fresh legislation to lower the voting age in all elections; a programme of preparation and youth engagement; and investment in teacher training and a citizenship curriculum. This was before the independence referendum, when measures were successfully implemented in Scotland to enable 16 and 17 year olds to vote.
The Minister welcomed the report as a “significant contribution” to the debate. He went on to state it was “comprehensive and well-argued” recognising its mandate from the priority ballot of 478,000 young people in the 2013 Make Your Mark referendum run by the UK Youth Parliament.
Whilst noting that the Coalition did not share a view on the issue, and therefore would not have acted in the last Parliament, he noted that the general election was an opportunity for debate and for the public to reconsider their attitudes towards it. Regarding the specific recommendations – the Government noted their value and listed their own track record in supporting youth participation initiatives like the work of the UK Youth Parliament, the British Youth Council and the Youth Select Committees that had led to this report.
Michael Hope, 18, Chair of the Youth Select Committee who voted in the independence referendum at 17, said: “We were disappointed at the five months delay in the Governments response and we believe that it was a missed opportunity for the government to engage in the decision making process with young people. We are also disappointed that the government did not respond sooner and more positively with a commitment to consider votes at 16 for the European elections as a first step on which all parties could agree. However, the report is a credible foundation, once Parliament decides the time is right. We know it works and although – as cited in the response – public opinion was against the measure in the UK, we know this is no longer the case in Scotland with the vast majority of young people and adults now in favour of votes at 16 for all.”
Ife Grillo, Vice Chair for Campaigns and Communications said: “The British Youth Council welcomes a response to the Youth Select Commitees report. Votes at 16 now has more public support than ever and it a shame that young people aren’t allowed to vote in this next election. Votes at 16 is a belief statement as well as a campign and we hope that whoever ends up in charge shares our vision for a more democratic society”
There is still a possibility that enough pro votes at 16 parties will win enough seats to collaborate on new legislation in a new Parliament. It’s certainly a promise to young people no party would dare break.